At present, there are electronic apparatuses as represented by information processing apparatuses including portable notebook personal computers (laptop computers), such as tablet and convertible personal computers (PCs), and portable information terminals. Some of these electronic apparatuses are capable of changing the display orientation of the display screen according to the orientation of the own electronic apparatus. Among such electronic apparatuses, some are known for the function of changing the display orientation of the display screen according to a user operation.
In addition, some electronic apparatuses are known to be provided with a sensor, such as an accelerometer sensor and a gyroscope, in order to detect the orientation of the own electronic apparatus. The sensor detects the direction of gravitational force or the direction of motion. When a user changes the orientation of such an electronic apparatus, the sensor enables the electronic apparatus to automatically change the display orientation of the display screen according to the orientation change made by a user. With this, a user is always able to view the display screen and operate the electronic apparatus in a proper orientation.
As for such an electronic apparatus that automatically changes the display orientation, it is sometimes the case that the orientation of the electronic apparatus, detected by a sensor, does not coincide with the actual orientation in which a user is viewing the display screen, which may cause difficulty for the user to view the display screen. That is, with the function of automatically changing the display orientation of the display screen, the display orientation of the display screen is determined according to the detected orientation of the electronic apparatus. As a result, the determined display orientation of the display screen may not always coincide with the display orientation of the display screen desired by a user, such as the orientation in which the user is viewing the display screen. In view of this problem, some electronic apparatuses allow users to make a choice to disable the automatic change of the display orientation of the display screen.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2008-131616
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-226715
However, it is burdensome to change, on a case-by-case basis, the setting regarding whether to disable the automatic change of the display orientation. In addition, it requires that an appropriate setting according to the situation has to be made in advance. That is, in some cases, the function of automatically changing the display orientation is wasted because automatic change of the display orientation is disabled in the situation where the change of the display orientation is necessary, and in other cases, a user may experience difficulty in viewing the display screen because the function of automatically changing the display orientation is enabled in the situation where the change of the display orientation is not necessary.